


THE ENEMY WITHIN

by ivorygates



Series: Across Five Aprils [4]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Daniverse, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e03 The Enemy Within, Fix-It, Gen, Girl!Daniel, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-24
Updated: 2006-06-24
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/641111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Daniverse version of s01e03, plus a couple of interludes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	THE ENEMY WITHIN

She barely has time to grab a sandwich, a shower, and a change of clothes before she's off in another room, interviewing refugees to get their… home addresses. The ones who know English -- and, oddly, that's most of them -- they can send back first. Major Samuels tells her she has to get as much information out of the people she's sending back as she can. He gives her a list of questions to ask. The questions make little sense to her, and apparently even less to the people she asks them of. She asks them anyway, because she's been told to. Fortunately, all the interviews are on tape and film.  
  
By the time 0730 happens -- it's 7:30 am to ordinary people, and apparently they arrived back around ten o'clock at night -- she's been up all night and it's still barely two days since she was living on Abydos, her body adjusted to an entirely different planetary rhythm.

The whole event has a surreal quality for her. Nothing either Sam or Jack says in the debriefing sounds like anything that she remembers having happened, and at one point she realizes she's been talking for several minutes on the Arabic derivation of the native language of the Gate Priesthood she encountered on the road to Chulak. The silence is not so much interested as stunned.

After that she simply drinks coffee and waits for the debriefing to be over.

She has a lot of work to do.

She sees nothing at all of either Jack or Sam after the debriefing. By the middle of the next day, she is finished with the English-speakers. They are separated into family groups and planet-or-address of origin. They have been interviewed. They've been sent home. It would have gone a lot faster if not for Major Samuels' damned exit interviews. At least they're getting some information about a lot of planets.

The others are harder.

If not for Teal'c, she doesn't think she'd be able to talk to the non-English-speaking ones at all. Or at least not quickly. She learned the language on Abydos because there were pictures to point to; a common ground to work from; and the certainty that the culture of origin must be Egyptian; she doesn't have any of that with the people here. But the refugees are all terrified of him. He's a Jaffa, one of the enemy warriors who brought them to the place where they would be tortured and -- probably -- killed.

But they all seem to know his other language. The rudiments of it, at least. It gives her a common ground, a basis from which to grope her way toward at least a pidgin understanding of whatever they speak at home.

Between the interviews, she tries to talk to Teal'c. She learns several things quickly. His English is perfect, but not idiomatic. It is absolutely precise, with no room for ambiguity or metaphor. With Teal'c, you must say exactly what you mean. She restricts herself to short declarative sentences.

Feeding him is difficult. She discovers that he has been given standard meals in his quarters, but has not been eating them. Apparently the food is too strange; some of it unrecognizable, some unpalatable, some indigestible. She questions him. Fresh fruits and vegetables are acceptable. He dislikes beef and fried foods. Flatly refuses to have anything to do with milk products. Will eat chicken and fish, if they're steamed.

She makes demands of the commissary. Makes guesses.

She discovers that Jell-O is a big hit.

He doesn't -- apparently -- need to sleep. She wishes she didn't need to. Her body is still -- more or less -- adjusted to the 36-hour Abydan day, and she finds herself dozing off at weird moments. Coffee keeps her going.

Teal'c does _not_ like coffee. He finds herb tea acceptable, though.

She's driving the commissary crazy.

There is a function unique to his species he _does_ need to perform, however. He has done it once already, but it is difficult without the proper materials. He's hesitant to ask her for them, but after the blue raspberry Jell-O, a certain level of trust has been established. He makes a long explanation of what he needs that baffles her completely before she realizes that what he's describing are _candles._

Candles.

No candles on a military base.

She requests some. Lots of them.

He doesn't seem to know what to make of her. Asks her if she's a priestess. She tells him she's a scholar.

He does not know what the word means.

"One who… studies things. Old things. Well, _I_ study old things. Old cultures, old languages."

"Yet I saw you fire a weapon, when we came to the place of Ra."

They've taken a break from the endless interviews. She can't remember the last time she got more than two hours' sleep. She doesn't want to sleep. She keeps seeing Skaara's face.

She isn't with Teal'c and the refugees all the time, of course. She's got an office, now. A tiny little cubicle (temporary, they tell her), but it has a computer with Internet access. She has no books, but she can get access to a number of the academic databases. It helps her work out some of the languages she's trying to speak, since all her reference books are gone.

She wonders where they went.

Variants of Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew. She speaks the originals fluently, of course, but these are their distant ancestors, the languages as no one on Earth today has ever heard them, further distorted by centuries of separation from their natal planet.

Why did the _Goa'uld_ take so many people from Earth?

Then the sense of Teal'c's words penetrates and her stomach sinks.

Ra's domain. Abydos. He saw her.

He was there.

One of the Serpent Guards.

"You were on Abydos."

"The planet in the domain of Ra. Iunu. The place from which we took the boy Skaara," Teal'c says. He always wants to make sure everything is completely clear. She's learned that about him already.

"My brother," she says.

"He is no longer your brother," Teal'c says.

"He is," she says desperately. "He _is._ "

He passes right over -- unusual for Teal'c -- the question of how a _Tau'ri_ could be sister to an Abydan. _Tau'ri_ is what Teal'c's kind call people from Earth. Not any human. Just the ones from here. There is something special about this world in Teal'c's mind, but she hasn't had time to find out what it is yet.

"Nothing of the host survives," Teal'c says again.

She shot Sha're. He saw her do it. If she hadn't, would the _Goa'uld_ at Chulak have taken Sha're too? Or would Sha're be safe with her now?

Teal'c watches her face. "You killed the woman to keep her from being taken," Teal'c says. "Few have been so brave."

"I was stupid," Dani whispers bitterly.

There is a long pause, as if he's giving the matter serious thought and consideration.

"No," Teal'c answers.

#

She's run out of antihistamines. She wonders if she can get more from the infirmary.

She doesn't know the day, or the month. She's not really sure of the year. She's starting to doubt the existence of the outside world.

Another half day, and they're done. All the refugees are back where they started from.

But now, the _Goa'uld_ are trying to get at them here. They can't open the iris again. The _Goa'uld_ keep trying to send -- _something_ \-- to Earth. Whatever it is, it keeps banging off the iris. Sam says, as they're waiting for General Hammond, that's because it can't fully materialize at their end.

Dani hopes they're not sending …people.

There's yet another briefing; General Hammond wants them all to go someplace.

It occurs to her that she may have a job. An actual job, since they obviously want her to keep doing this… whatever she's been doing… as a part of SG-1. She wonders how much they're going to be paying her, and if she'll ever get to leave The Mountain again. Almost thirty stories underground. Not her idea of a good time. Food's okay, though. And she doesn't have to even try to cook.

But… briefings. She has the irritated feeling that the military has as many briefings as colleges do department meetings, and wonders if they're all going to be as pointless. She gets to say 'hi' to Sam at this one -- it's held in the Control Room, so they can all stare pointlessly into the computers -- but Jack and Kawalsky clown their way through things -- something about which SG Team is going to go to what planet. Nobody's interested in hearing from her -- not that she has anything to say. She _does_ find out that the Base has something that they call an autodestruct mechanism, which the General activates every time the _Goa'uld_ activate the Gate from the other side. It has a three-minute countdown. So in addition to everything else, they could blow themselves up at any moment. Or if the iris doesn't hold.

Nobody's going anywhere until the _Goa'uld_ stop.

#

It's been four days now since they got back from Chulak. They've been trying to prep another mission through the Gate, using some of the Abydos coordinates, but unfortunately the _Goa'uld_ keep knocking at the door. The Doc did a good job of getting their refugees turned around and back home. He saw her at the meeting this morning. She looks tired.

At least they didn't get another language lecture.

Kawalsky's looking a little rocky.

General Hammond drops the bad news on him after the meeting.

His request to have Teal'c join SG-1 has been denied. Not Hammond's choice. A spook named Kennedy is on his way from the Pentagon. They're going to take Teal'c and make him into a lab rat.

And there's nothing O'Neill can do about it.

#

Since they're not going anywhere immediately, and the refugees are all gone, Sam asks her to sit in on a briefing she's giving on the DHD -- since she's spent a lot of time studying an actual one, and Sam only theorized its existence.

It turns out she gives most of the lecture. She begins with an abbreviated form of the original lecture she gave to General West: how the seven glyphs determine a specific address in space and the point of origin. She draws on the whiteboard. There are photos this time, both of the Gate and a DHD. She goes on to explain that a DHD is like a telephone -- a metaphor that Sam supplies -- and that to get back home from wherever you are, all you have to do is dial Earth. She's about to explain in further detail, when she's distracted by movement down in the Gateroom -- you can see it through the briefing room window.

She walks over to the window. "What's Major Kawalsky doing in the Embarkation Room?" Which is, technically, what the Gateroom is supposed to be called.

Sam comes over. Stands beside her. Looks. Tells an airman to page Jack and General Hammond to the Gateroom. Looks at Dani. The two of them go down.

"Hey, Kawalsky," she says, when they reach the floor. He is standing on the ramp in front of the Stargate with his arms outstretched, like a member of a freaky religious cult.

Jack and Hammond walk in. "Charlie?" Jack says. He walks past her and Sam.

Weird. Kawalsky's name is Charlie, too. Just like Jack's son was.

Kawalsky turns and looks around. He seems puzzled to see them all. "Jack? What am I doing here?"

"You don't know?"

Kawalsky gives them all a blank look. Jack claps him on the shoulder. "C'mon."

They walk off.

She looks at Sam. Sam shrugs faintly. She has no idea what's going on either. She glances up to the Briefing Room window. Dani follows her gaze. Everybody is looking down at them.

"We'd better get back up there," Sam says.

They finish out the briefing, but it's hard for Dani to concentrate. It's cut short, too, because the room is needed for something else. As they walk out, Teal'c is being led in, with General Hammond and a man in uniform she doesn't recognize. She smiles at Teal'c, but gets no response.

She follows Sam down to her lab. Up to her lab, actually; it's on Level 19, and they've just been on Level 27. She spends a lot of time in elevators these days. Her temporary office is on Level 16, where the clerical staff is. She should probably go there, but Sam has said she'd like the help in writing up her briefing notes.

There are airmen in the corridor every few yards, and all of them are armed. Two airmen flank the elevator, also armed. It's probably supposed to make everyone feel safer, but it gives Dani the opposite feeling. Obviously they're expecting an immediate attack, if they've got so many armed soldiers just standing around.

Sam's lab is a strange and fascinating world, filled with machines with blinking lights and mysterious functions. Shelves full of bizarre devices, racks of tools, several different computers. She sits on a stool, looking over Sam's shoulder as Sam types into one of them.

"Why do you suppose General Hammond wants to talk to Teal'c?" she asks idly.

Sam looks over her shoulder at her, eyebrows raised. "He _is_ our only source of intel about the _Goa'uld_. We need to find out what he knows."

Dani thinks about that for a moment. "Then why am I not in that meeting?"

Sam just sighs. Either it was the wrong question to ask, or she doesn't know the answer. But Dani knows as much about Teal'c by now as anyone here, she thinks. Except she thinks Jack has talked to him a lot. Jack got him to change sides. She bets anything that what she couldn't find out from Teal'c, Jack could.

They finish up with Sam's notes about fifteen minutes later. Sam says she's going to drop by the Control Room. There hasn't been another siren lately. Sam says she thinks that means the _Goa'uld_ have finally given up, which means SG-1 will be going through the Gate soon. She's going to go see.

Dani rubs her eyes.

"When was the last time you slept?" Sam asks her.

"I don't know," she answers.

"Doesn't help when the whole base goes on alert every two hours," Sam says kindly.

"It's not that." _Not just that._ "But I can't stop thinking about Skaara. Where he is. What he's… become."

Sam's expression softens. "I know. But you can't stay awake forever."

Dani lifts the mug of coffee in her hand. "I can try." She hates the dreams that come when she tries to sleep.

Sam gives her a look that she has no trouble interpreting. She has to sleep, or she won't be ready to go through the Gate.

"No, you're right. I guess I'll see you at the next briefing." She's sure someone will come and tell her when that is. As certain as she is that there will be another briefing.

They step out into the hallway. Sam closes the door behind her with a cardkey.

Dani also has a cardkey. It opens her office, the elevators, and several other doors on the Base. It came with an Orientation Packet that she has yet to read.

Sleep.

There's a bunkroom for the female personnel on Level 14. It's where she's been sleeping, when she does. There aren't many women here; there are eight bunks in the room and she's never seen anyone else there.

She enters the elevator -- card -- keys her floor -- card -- and steps out again. Finds the bunkroom -- card -- and goes inside. It's dark. She doesn't bother to turn on the lights. Her head is spinning, just a little. Exhaustion and caffeine overload. She sits down on the bottom bunk and bends over to take off her boots.

An arm flops down from the top bunk. She leaps up -- hitting her head on the bottom edge of the top bunk -- and grabs for the light switch by the door. She smells the blood before she sees it.

There is blood dripping down the extended arm. There is a dead body in the top bunk. A man in a white lab coat. He looks vaguely familiar. She runs out into the hall, and for the first time she's glad that there are airmen every few feet.

"There's a dead guy in here!"

The airman presses a red button on the wall and runs over to her. The alarm that goes off is drowned out by the sound of an alarm going off somewhere else. There's an announcement over the loudspeaker:

_"Security, to the Infirmary. Security, to the Infirmary. Set -- condition Red. Set -- condition red."_

Suddenly she remembers where she's seen the dead man before. The dead man is Dr. Nimzicki. He examined her when she came back from Abydos.

She runs.

#

She heads for the elevator. When she gets there, General Hammond, and several airmen are standing in front of the closed elevator doors.

"What the--" General Hammond says, seeing her.

"Someone inside the elevator hit the emergency stop," she says. "General Hammond--"

"Get those doors open," General Hammond orders.

Nobody here will let her finish a sentence. "General--"

Jack arrives.

"Get 'em open."

The airmen pry the doors open, and when they do, she forgets all about Dr. Nimzicki. Kawalsky is in the elevator, holding Sam in his arms. She's unconscious. Not moving. He says he has no idea what happened to her, but that she's badly hurt.

They take Sam and Kawalsky to the infirmary. She's finally able to tell them about finding Dr. Nimzicki's body, then goes to see Sam. She's conscious. Not as badly hurt as Kawalsky said. She squeezes Dani's hand as they wheel her off to X-Ray, and tells her to tell Kawalsky she doesn't blame him. Dani promises. She smiles at Sam, but she's already worrying. She has half the puzzle and suspects the rest. She goes back to Dr. Warner's office, where Dr. Warner is showing Jack and General Hammond Kawalsky's MRI.

Kawalsky has a _Goa'uld_ in him.

It shows up very clearly on the MRI.

Dr. Warner has theories.

#

Kawalsky is strapped to one of those rotating tables, so that he can be moved to any angle. He's lying on it face down, and when Dr. Warner rotates it so that he's 'standing' upright, only his disembodied face shows through the bottom of the table, since he's lying on his stomach.

He's in heavy restraints.

"Jack?" Kawalsky says. "What's going on?"

He's scared. She can tell. She's always been able to read Kawalsky easily: when he was mad at her, when he liked her, when he was disgusted with her, ignoring her, or just despised her. They're both standing in front of him, but he's looking at Jack.

"It's a…" Jack has to stop and start again. "It's a _Goa'uld_. Probably an infant."

Dr. Warner thinks so because of the size. It's smaller than the one Teal'c carries, and he says that his isn't mature enough to take a host either.

"They think it's probably trying to take control of you, and hasn't been able to because it's not mature yet," she says, when Jack doesn't go on. "It's what's causing your blackouts."

Kawalsky, as anyone could expect, isn't pleased.

"What are you saying?" he says, focusing on Jack, not her. "That I got one of those _things_ in me? How the hell did that happen?"

"We were kinda hoping you could tell us," Jack answers. "You didn't feel it happening?"

Kawalsky makes a rude noise. Obviously not.

"When was the first time you blacked out?" she asks.

"I was here. We'd just come back through from Chulak. I thought it was just from coming back through the Stargate. We were helping that kid -- Casey was his name. It was a sharp… Oh, god, Jack. I thought I wrenched my neck."

She remembers that moment. Jack and the General had been arguing about Teal'c. Kawalsky had sunk to his knees. She hears the naked fear in Kawalsky's voice, sees the pain in Jack's. She knows commandos aren't supposed to be like that. Not afraid. Not reacting to fear.

"Anyway," Kawalsky goes on, "Anyway, Casey, he was all right… Oh, god, Jack, you got to help me. You got to get this thing out of me." There are tears in his eyes. She shouldn't be here listening to this. Jack and Kawalsky have been friends for a long time. She owes them privacy. But before she can move away, Kawalsky asks if he hurt anyway during his blackouts.

At least she's able to tell him that Sam is fine -- going to be -- and doesn't blame him.

She leaves, to go check on Sam again. Sam's back in bed. Dani sits down at her bedside.

"The X-Rays are back," Sam says. "No concussion. Just a pretty bad knock. They'll let me get up in an hour. How's Kawalsky?"

"He's got a _Goa'uld_ wrapped around his spine," Dani says.

#

An hour gives Sam just enough time to dress and make the next briefing. Dani's supposed to be there too; an airman comes to the infirmary and tells her.

There's got to be a more organized way of running things. Maybe if she spent more time in her office.

She still hasn't gotten any sleep, but with a _Goa'uld_ in Kawalsky, she doubts SG-1 is going anywhere soon.

#

She, Jack, Sam, Teal'c, Dr. Warner, and the man she saw with Teal'c in the other briefing are there. His name-plate says his name is 'Kennedy.' He's a Colonel.

Jack doesn't like him.

It's nothing he says. Just something in his body language, but anthropology -- one of her degrees -- is about body language, among other things. Archaeology is about dead bones, and anthropology is about live ones. She knows already that everyone who wears a uniform here thinks of her as a geek -- brainy and brainless appear to be synonyms in the military world -- and therefore incapable of learning anything worth knowing, but all of her degrees, in one way or another, are about communication. With the past, with the dead, with other cultures. And the military is certainly another culture.

Jack O'Neill is very good at hiding. He fascinates her, because sometimes he can vanish in plain sight. His face, his body, become completely mute, saying nothing at all. Not right now. Right now he is saying -- if only to her -- as plainly as if he were shouting it -- that Colonel Kennedy is the enemy, an outsider, not to be trusted. Which is (on the surface) counter-intuitive. Colonel Kennedy is an Air Force Colonel. Jack is an Air Force Colonel. Both the same, or nearly.

Yes? No?

She's sitting beside Teal'c. She looks at Colonel Kennedy. Kennedy is looking at Teal'c. With… ownership?

Oh, that isn't right at all.

General Hammond enters and they all stand.

"As you were, people. In light of the day's events, Colonel Kennedy has chosen to make certain recommendations to my superiors that I want to share with all of you. Colonel Kennedy?"

"I know that many of you have served with Major Kawalsky, so please forgive me if what I am about to suggest appears in any way… callous. But I believe surgical removal of the parasite may be a mistake."

A mistake?

He's got to be kidding.

"General, this is a waste of time Kawalsky does not have," Jack says, ignoring Kennedy completely.

Kennedy ignores Jack as well. "Dr Warner, what are Major Kawalsky's chances of surviving the procedure?"

Dr. Warner hesitates. "Ten… twelve percent at most."

"And the parasite? It is an intelligent being after all, isn't it, Colonel? I believe I first read that in your report."

The parasite -- the _Goa'uld_ \-- is like Ra.

"The parasite itself would not survive the procedure," Dr. Warner adds.

"So we're faced with destroying one life in the hopeless attempt to save another. You see the ethical dilemma?" He's saying the words, but as if they're lines in a script. He doesn't believe any of them. He's saying these things to manipulate the rest of them.

She feels a faint echo of what she felt standing before Ra. None of the words really mattered.

"No. I don't," Jack says, answering Colonel Kennedy.

"My team and I are completely prepared to perform the procedure, sir. We'll do our best," Dr. Warner says, as if trying to blot out the presence of Colonel Kennedy.

"Of course you will, Doctor," Colonel Kennedy says patronizingly. "Please don't misunderstand. We all wish the invading parasite in Major Kawalsky's body could be safely removed. But the facts are the facts."

"I'm sorry, what was your point?" Sam asks. Her voice is hostile.

"If we proceed with this operation, Major Kawalsky will have died in vain."

"And if we don't?" Sam asks.

Yeah, she'd like to know that, too.

"Well, let's consider that for a moment These infant _Goa'ulds_ … if they're so young, so fragile in their larval state that they require a… uh… a… I'm sorry, what was it you called yourself?" he says to Teal'c.

He knows. He's stage-managing this, trying to get them all to see Teal'c as an outsider.

"Jaffa," Teal'c says.

"For want of a better translation, what? Incubator? How is it that they're so intelligent?"

Are they? She glances at Jack. The flicker in his eyes tells her that the answer to that question is 'yes.'

"A _Goa'uld_ is born with all the knowledge of all _Goa'uld_ that came before it," Teal'c says. His voice is emotionless.

"Genetic memory," she says aloud. "That's amazing." And horrible. And frightening. It means their enemy is not only more intelligent than they thought, but effectively immortal, able to pass its life experience down to its descendants.

"Yes it is," Kennedy says, and she wishes she hadn't said anything. "All the knowledge of the _Goa'ulds_." She wishes he'd stop using the incorrect plural. "I just want you all to think about that before we just throw it away."

"I've thought about it," Jack says grimly. He looks at Sam. "You thought about it?" She nods. "I think we've all thought about it, yeah." He looks around the table. "Any more thinking to be done?"

Dani shakes her head.

"Colonel," General Hammond says warningly.

But Kennedy won't shut up. "Imagine if we could convince that _Goa'uld_ to share its knowledge."

"A _Goa'uld_ would not willingly share," Teal'c says uncompromisingly.

She thinks of Ra. Takes a deep breath. "Look. Teal'c is right. To them, we're nothing. Less than nothing. I mean… Think about it. They've taken on the roles of our ancient gods. Ra. Horus. Anubis. Apophis. What does that tell you?"

Kennedy seems to finally get it. "All right. What if we just studied it? How much could we learn from that? What if we just faced up to the fact that Major Kawalsky's chance of survival is slim and realize that the greatest enemy mankind may ever face has just been delivered right to our doorstep. How much could we…?"

Kennedy wants to keep the _Goa'uld_ alive no matter what.

General Hammond refuses angrily. He tells Kennedy that so long as Kawalsky has any chance of coming out of the procedure alive, they're going to do it.

There's more after that, but not much. Kennedy is going to try to get Hammond overruled, but it doesn't sound as if he can.

The meeting is over.

#

"Jack?" she says afterward. "Why is he here?"

Teal'c has left -- with Dr. Warner -- for the infirmary. Dr. Warner wants to try out anesthetics on Teal'c's symbiote before operating on Kawalsky. Colonel Kennedy has left to make his phone calls. Sam has also made herself scarce quickly.

The two of them are alone.

"Who?" Jack asks. He's back to being unreadable.

"Kennedy. The Nazi."

Jack raises his eyebrows. "He's an officer in the United States Air Force."

She's not going to be sidetracked. "Why is he here?"

"He's come to take Teal'c away."

_"Where?"_

Jack doesn't answer.

"You can't let him do that! _Jack!"_ She thinks of Kennedy looking at Teal'c. The look of ownership. He'll want to study the _Goa'uld_. Teal'c can't survive without the _Goa'uld_. Kennedy won't care. "They're going to kill him, Jack. He saved our lives. He… he let me kill Sha're." She doesn't know how she knows it was Teal'c who was holding Sha're on Abydos -- he hasn't said, she hasn't asked -- but she does.

"Do you think I haven't tried?" Jack says harshly. "Or General Hammond? All the Pentagon sees-- _Dani!"_

But she won't listen to any more. She turns and walks out.

#

She goes up to her office, but they're in the middle of packing it up. She's being moved to Floor 18, the floor above Sam. There was a memo, but she hasn't been in her office long enough to see it.

She doesn't really have a lot. They're almost done. She follows the airmen and the two hand trucks down to 18. Her new office is at least as big as Sam's. Bigger than the one she had the last time she was here. The ceiling is more than twenty feet above her head. The walls and floor are grey concrete. There's a row of beige file cabinets in one corner, a desk, a long table, a fax machine.

"Computer?" she says.

The airmen look at each other blankly.

"I need the computer from the other office." Or any computer, actually, since she keeps her files in a directory on the mainframe, not in the computer itself. "Computer? Internet hookup? _Phone?"_

"You'll, uh, have to get the General's authorization," one of them finally says.

"Fine," she says, and goes off to see the General.

#

General Hammond hears out her request -- it sounds ridiculous, even to her, in the face of everything else going on, but if it's going to be her office, it needs a computer in it, just to begin with. He promises to take care of it. Then he sends her to bed.

She hesitates at the door of the bunkroom. The last time she tried going to sleep, there was a dead body there. But it's gone now, and so is the mattress on the top bunk. The room smells strongly of disinfectant.

There's a phone on the wall. She calls Sam's office. Makes sure Sam knows where she is, and will make sure she is there when they operate on Kawalsky.

Sam promises.

Dani lies down, and segues imperceptibly from worry into nightmare. Skarra. Teal'c. Kawalsky. In her dreams, the _Goa'uld_ are everywhere, destroying everything they touch. And sometimes they wear the faces of US Air Force Colonels named Kennedy.

Eventually the ringing of the phone in the room wakes her.

#

She's never watched someone cut open a live human being before, though she's seen -- and participated in -- a couple of autopsies of mummies. Teal'c helped Dr. Warner find an anesthetic that would work on Kawalsky's symbiote, because without one, they'd be cutting with both Kawalsky and the symbiote fully conscious.

She sits next to Sam. They're sitting at desks behind a wall of glass, looking down into the operating theater. At other stations around the observation platform sit Jack, General Hammond, Teal'c.

Kennedy isn't here.

She wonders when he'll be taking Teal'c away. Or if Jack and General Hammond have managed to stop him.

Jack would if he could.

How can a Colonel – Kennedy – have more power than a General?

There's nowhere else for Teal'c to go.

If he goes back through the Gate, the _Goa'uld_ will execute him.

There's nowhere he can hide on Earth.

Jack didn't bring him back here so that he could be tortured and killed.

Checkmate?

There _has_ to be a Plan B. There was on Abydos. They just need to find it in time.

As a final request before he's sedated, Kawalsky asks General Hammond to let him 'wake up as him or not at all.'

Sam flinches slightly. Dani understands. But…

Teal'c said 'nothing of the host survives.'

Kawalsky is fighting very hard against his _Goa'uld_. It's putting him through agony in an attempt to take full control, but he's still him. What is Skarra feeling right now? Does he still remember who he is? Is he in there with the _Goa'uld_ , sharing the body as Kawalsky is?

Dr. Warner talks his way through the operation. He sounds optimistic.

"At least it's going well," Sam says.

"That's…" she says. "Sam, if we can reverse what's happened to Kawalsky, there's a chance for Skaara."

She sees Sam glance at her. "Let's hope," is all Sam says.

They have to find Skaara first.

The operation takes almost four hours, but at the end of it, Dr. Warner pulls the body of the _Goa'uld_ loose from Kawalsky's spine.

It looks like a miniature sea monster.

#

The next morning, she goes to see Kawalsky in the infirmary. Jack is already there, and she hesitates, but he smiles at her. Apparently they're good.

Kawalsky has made a full recovery. He can move his fingers, feel his toes. He'll walk again, probably within a few days.

"So," he says. "We gonna go out dancin', Doc?" He grins at her.

"Sure, Kawalsky," she says. "Anything you want. Dinner and dancing. My treat."

"Hey," Kawalsky says. "It was almost worth going through this to hear that."

"Just don't make a habit of it," Jack says.

"Um… Colonel Kennedy's probably going to want to take it with him, so if you want to see it once before--" she says.

"Are you talking about that thing that was in my head?" Kawalsky demands indignantly.

"The Doc thinks it's fascinating," Jack drawls.

"No!" she says quickly. She did ask Dr. Warner if she could see it, but still… "I just thought you might--"

Kawalsky makes a face.

Suddenly Sam hurries in.

"I just heard," she says. "They're shipping Teal'c out to Langley. Kennedy's taking him with him."

 _"What?"_ Jack says. The sound of his voice tells her everything she needs to know. Jack thought he'd made a deal with Kennedy. Something to keep Teal'c here, and safe. And Kennedy's reneged on it.

"Did he say what for?" she asks. Because no one, not even Jack, has quite said why Teal'c is going. Not out loud.

"'Study.' That's Kennedy's word," Sam says.

"Right," Jack says bitterly. "Like a damned lab rat. Apparently Kennedy's ethics are selective." He stalks out.

She follows him.

"Jack."

He doesn't stop. "Not now."

"Wait." She has to run to keep up with him. "It's not your fault. I know you tried."

He pauses long enough to glance at her. "Tell that to Teal'c."

He strides on, leaving her behind.

#

She goes back to her office, and as a result, only hears about the rest later. Sam's the one who brings her the news. She knows that she's supposed to be their alien cultures specialist and translator, but Sam is hers: translator for the alien culture that is the military. They sit in Dani's office. Sam has brought coffee.

The operation was a failure after all. When she was sitting with Kawalsky, promising to take him dancing, she was talking to the _Goa'uld_. It asked to see Teal'c alone. Demanded that he serve it. Overpowered him when he refused. Knocked out the guards outside the door. Ran for the Gateroom with Teal'c in pursuit. Overpowered Walter in the Control Room. Set the Autodestruct and dialed Chulak. But Teal'c was there to meet it on the ramp, keeping it from going through. Held its head in the event horizon as Jack shut down the wormhole, destroying the _Goa'uld_. Killing Kawalsky.

They never found out its name.

Major Charles -- Charlie -- Kawalsky is dead. He was Jack's friend. She liked him too. (So many losses. So many bereavements. So much death. She'll fit right in here.)

Because of the need for even more debriefings, Major Kennedy and Teal'c still haven't left. Maybe the fact that Teal'c has saved them all -- again -- will count in his favor.

"And Dani? The fact that Major Kawalsky knew how to set the autodestruct code _proves_ that there's hope for Skaara."

"How?" Dani asks bluntly.

"Because only Kawalsky could have known that code."

So Teal'c was wrong. Or, more likely, the _Goa'uld_ have lied to him, to all the Jaffa, to all the …hosts. For thousands of years. Something of the host _does_ survive. Skaara is still there to be rescued.

"We've got a mission tomorrow. You up for it?" Sam asks.

"Oh yes. I'll be ready." Every time they go through the Gate, there's a chance to find Skaara on the other side.

#

They're going to P34-575. The MALP -- which stands for Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe -- has reported that conditions on the planet are favorable -- meaning, so far as Dani can tell, that they can breathe there. Finding out anything more will be up to them. SG-1. First Contact Team.

She and Sam are standing on the ramp. Jack is waiting at the foot. General Hammond is there to see them off.

The doors to the Gateroom open and Teal'c walks in.

He's wearing an SGC uniform.

He's going to stay.

"Reporting as ordered," Teal'c says.

"Sir," Jack prompts. "It's 'sir.'"

"Sir," Teal'c adds obligingly.

"Welcome aboard, son," General Hammond says. He's smiling.

Teal'c is staying. He's theirs now. Not Major Kennedy's.

Jack and Teal'c walk up the ramp to join them.

"Well?" Jack says.

SG-1 steps through, the four of them side-by-side.

#

_INTERLUDE:_

She _does_ have a job. Permanently. She's on SG-1. She's in the Stargate Program. _Back_ in the Stargate Program, actually. Considering she was originally hired for the Giza Project.

They've assigned her a government paygrade. Even starting at the lowest level of Grade 12, she's making more money than she's ever seen in her life. And they're _still_ going to pay her what Catherine promised for translating the Giza coverstone. She's _rich._

She can get her family's furniture out of storage. Good thing she paid a year in advance before she went to Abydos. It's still there.  
She hasn't seen her furniture since she was eight. The estate paid storage charges on it for years, and then she took over. Sometimes it was hard to come up with the money, but she couldn't bear to lose her last link with her parents. She'd been living in TA Housing at Berkeley, but she'd had all her books and her few personal effects shipped to Cheyenne Mountain when Catherine hired her, since she quit her job to come. Jack says Catherine took most of them with her when she was booted off the program. She hopes Catherine still has them. The books at least.

When she came back to Earth -- that still sounds strange -- she had no identification, no driver's license, nothing. The Air Force took care of everything. They kept her personal papers -- certificates, diplomas, transcripts -- at The Mountain after she left, so she doesn't even need to replace those. Everything they kept is sitting in storage cartons in her new office. The space is huge. Poured concrete. It echoes.

Jack says not to worry. Jack worries about a lot of things, she knows, but not about things like this.

She's bought a car; she drove into town with an airman for that; she knew exactly what she wanted. A Jeep. It's orange. New; they were happy to sell it to her once she told them where she worked. They let her drive it off the lot immediately. She knows how to drive, but this is the first time she's ever owned a vehicle. She bought a Jeep because it snows here. Right now it's early summer -- she's still freezing; her body is adjusted to the climate on Abydos, and even summer in Colorado Springs is arctic in comparison -- but winter is coming. She remembers winter from the two years she spent in Chicago at the Oriental Institute. She'll need something with four-wheel drive to get around.

She sent the airman back to the base and went looking for an apartment. She had a streetmap, and Sam has been telling her about good places to look.

The loft is the largest space she's ever had all to herself. She couldn't get anything shorter than a two-year lease, and that worries her a little, but with the Project Giza money, and the fact that General Hammond seems to think she's vital to the Program now, she's pretty sure she's fully-employed for the foreseeable future. It's higher up than she'd really prefer – eighth floor – but she couldn't resist the exposed brick walls. And it has a fireplace. Two of them, actually. One in the bedroom. She'll be warm. (She'll just stay off the balcony.)

She goes home every night – to her own civilian space. Hers. Private. Her furniture will be here in a day or so. Once she sees what she owns, she can see what she needs to buy. Meanwhile, she's camping out in the bedroom on a sleeping bag she's gotten from Stores. Not all that different from Student Housing, actually.

It's odd to have a real place all to herself.

First time in her life.

Lonely.

#

Catherine is surprised, pleased, and miffed -- all three -- to find out she's returned from the dead.

Not that she ever believed Dani was dead. Apparently Jack told her the truth even though he lied to General West. He'd have to have told her something when he gave her back her pendant, after all. She doesn't sound all that surprised to hear from Dani.

She sends back Dani's books and her artifacts. She's gotten rid of everything else. Not that there _was_ much else.

Dani's furniture arrives. It comes in the middle of the week. She has to ask General Hammond for permission to be there to meet it. To her surprise, he sends Jack and Sam and a couple of airmen with her.

They're going to help her move in.

#

It's been two weeks now, give or take, since Jack walked through the Stargate on Abydos.

SG1 has already been to P34-575 and P3A-577. She's glad she didn't drink what Sam drank.

They spoke English on both planets. Or nearly.

#

_"Wo ist namen?"_

His clothing gives her the first hint. Saxon? Geat? Angle? Dane? Something pretty close to fifth century CE Northern European, anyway: gartered trousers, round shield, bronze spear, sword. The gold brooch on his cloak marks him as a chief, or chief's son.

She runs through all the old languages of the area that she knows – not many – asking him his name. She wishes Jack would stop pointing his damned gun at the man as if he were a threat. The good thing is, he probably doesn't recognize it as a weapon. He's more worried about Teal'c. She's got to find a way to reassure him, and quickly.

Fortunately, she hits on a language they both know.

Anglo-Saxon. The mother of English. It hasn't been spoken in Europe for over a thousand years.

His name is Hrothgar. That's interesting, too. It means this is definitely an Earth-derived culture. Jack really doesn't care. He wants to know about _Goa'uld_ : have they seen any lately?

She explains that her Anglo-Saxon vocabulary is limited. The professor she took the course from told her that the language was fine if you wanted to talk about slaying forty men in a mead hall, but not for much else; it was an oral tradition, not a written one, and not much was preserved. She doesn't tell Jack that. She does tell him that in order to get the information he wants, they're going to have to spend some time with Hrothgar so she can build a vocabulary and learn what questions to ask.

As usual, Hrothgar thinks they're… well, this time it's something she can't translate. He invites them back to his father's house. She tells Jack this.

She watches Jack think about it. It's always interesting to watch Jack think, at least when he allows anything to show. It's like watching a completely alien language write itself out on her computer. She has no idea what it means, and the conclusions he reaches usually baffle and frustrate her.

But to her surprise and pleasure, he agrees they'll accompany Hrothgar.

She's not surprised when they're taken to a traditional longhouse, but the others seem to be -- though as usual, she can't tell what Teal'c is thinking. Pigs, chickens, and goats wander aimlessly between the longhouse -- the principal residence of the warrior males -- and the several smaller houses where the women, children, thegns, and older men sleep. On the way there, she has briefed the others on what they should expect to encounter, stressing the fact that they will be protected by the rules of behavior governing both guest-friendship and the way the natives here treat visitors who come through the _chappa'ai._

"You think," Jack says dubiously.

"I'm here to think," she reminds him.

Inside, there's a feast. Roast pork -- that she expects -- and a lot of drinking. There's beer and mead. Teal'c asks for water -- as far as she knows, Jaffa don't drink alcohol in any form (and why would they; it's a poison, when all is said and done) -- and they bring him a large bucket. Once he tests it and assures her it's pure, she shares it with him. She needs to keep her head clear for the language.

They've been given places of honor, seated with the chief and his sons. She translates between Jack, Sam, and the others, occasionally managing to slip in a question of her own.

The answers are puzzling.

There are good gods and bad gods -- the words he uses are _svartalfen_ and _liosalfar:_ bright elves and dark elves. Ragnarok has already come, and the good gods sent the bad gods away, saying they would never return. When was that? Oh, long ago. Many seasons. Where did this happen? Oh, far away. East of here, where the sun rises. Many died. The folk were not allowed to approach the _chappa'ai_ in those days, but the good gods have told them that they must now watch the _chappa'ai_ closely.

For what? They aren't sure.

The bad gods must be the _Goa'uld_. But who are the good gods?

There is a song about Ragnarok. Would they like to hear it?

Yes. Yes, they would.

The chief summons an old man. He looks old enough, actually, to have seen this Ragnarok in person. He carries a sort of harp.

He shuffles to the center of the hall. The room falls silent.

"Doc? What's going on?"

"Shh. Their chief skaald is going to recite the story of Ragnarok."

"'Scold'?"

She kicks him. She slips a hand surreptitiously into her pocket, turns on her tape recorder. She hopes she will get it all.

The skaald begins. The story is long, in a more archaic dialect than the one they are speaking now. She has trouble following it, only catching a word here and there. Battle. Sky. Lightning. Heavens. Blackness.

A great battle, that did …something?... to the weather on the planet for a long time? Fimbulwinter? And then the _Goa'uld_ were gone? She thinks that may be it. If she has enough of this on tape, maybe she can prepare an accurate translation later.

The skaald finishes. The hall explodes in cheers and shouts. The chief presents him with a gold arm ring, and turns to Jack. Speaks.

Jack looks at her.

"He wants to know if your skaald has a song for them."

"And?"

"I think I've got something they might like."

"Knock yourself out, Doc."

She gets to her feet, walks to the place where the chief's skaald stood.

 _" < Hear now a song of my own people, of a mighty warrior and a foe whom he vanquished in the child-days of my tribe. Perhaps you also know this song, for it is very old.>"_ She takes a deep breath, and hopes she remembers it all. _" <Hwaet! We of the Spear-Danes / In the old days of the people-kings / Have heard how the princes / Valorous deeds performed! / Oft Scyld Scefing wrested meadhouses from the meines of the foemen / From many tribes, terrified the warriors / Since he was first found landless-->"_

She tells them about Beowulf and Grendel. Even Jack and Teal'c look interested, though she knows they don't understand a word. The rest of the room, however, is riveted. She's never had this attentive an audience for a lecture in her life. They weep unashamedly as she describes Beowulf's heroic death in battle against the dragon at the end of his long and heroic life. When she is finished, they cheer.

The king calls her over, clasps a gold ring around her arm, and kisses her on both cheeks. He tells Jack that Jack possesses a skaald of great power and wisdom.

"He says he liked the poem," she tells Jack.

"Well, good," Jack says. He takes off his wristwatch and hands it to her, making a show of it. Jack isn't stupid. She knows that already.

She takes it, bowing, and buckles it on above the one she's already wearing.

"I'm going to want that back, you know," Jack says.

She sits down.

Now the skops -- lesser bards -- perform. Rowdy drinking songs, basically. More mead, and beer, and god knows what else, is passed along the tables, and everybody gets down to serious drinking. She stays away from the stuff as much as possible, and Jack sticks to the beer. Dani tries a little of it. It's thick, warm, and yeasty. That's probably why Sam goes with the other stuff.

"When do you think we can leave, Doc?" Jack asks her. He sounds impatient.

"Probably around the time everybody passes out," she says. She's a little tiddly despite her best efforts. Jack looks sober, but she knows he's had a couple of cups of beer. Teal'c's the only one who could actually pass a breathalyzer right now, she bets. She wonders what General Hammond is going to say when they all come staggering back through the Gate half-blasted.

Better bring coffee with them next time.

"That gonna be soon?" he asks.

She giggles. _Honestly, Jack, just take a look around,_ she thinks.

"No more of that for you, Doc. I'm cutting you off," he says, taking her cup away from her.

"O'Neill," Teal'c says. Both of them look where he's looking.

Sam is on her feet. Her jacket is off, and so's her uniform shirt. She's down to her black T. She has a dreamy, unfocussed, completely goofy grin on her face.

"Whoa," Jack says.

Sam pulls off her T-shirt. This is not going unnoticed by the guys around her who are still conscious.

Jack scrambles to his feet and lunges for Sam, not quite in time to keep her brassiere in place. Suddenly he has a handful of naked Captain Sam Carter, and looks like he's juggling live mice.

"Sirrrr…" Sam says.

Dani gets there a moment later. Jack spins Sam around and thrusts her at her. Dani isn't entirely steady on her feet either, but she's way more sober than Sam is right now.

Teal'c is right behind them, and his presence casts a discouraging pall over any of the local boys who might have taken an interest in Sam.

"We are leaving. Now," Jack says.

Between her and Teal'c, they get Sam into her jacket. Jack picks up Sam's pack and her gun. Dani picks up her discarded clothes. Teal'c picks up Sam.

"If you sling her over your shoulder, she's going to throw up," Dani tells him warningly.

"Of that I am aware," Teal'c answers.

She wonders how he knows.

Dani goes to make their excuses to the chief. Fortunately, he seems to have drunk more of what Sam drank than Sam has. Even more fortunately, it just seems to have paralyzed him, not made him amorous. She doesn't tell him they're leaving. She just tells him they're going outside. She's seen others going in and out. It must be okay. He waves agreement.

They step outside.

Night. Cold. Suddenly she's a lot less sober than she was a moment ago. The world spins around her and she staggers. She sees someone's walking stick leaning beside the door of the longhouse, and grabs it. If she doesn't have something to steady her, she isn't going to make it back to the Stargate.

"Come on," Jack says tightly. They walk quickly away from the village. As soon as they reach the trees, they stop.

"Teal'c, put the Captain down. Doc, get her clothes on, will you?" He sounds exasperated. He and Teal'c walk off, giving them privacy.

"What are we doing out here?" Sam asks, looking up at her owlishly.

"We're not being naked," Dani answers. "Okay?" She unzips Sam's jacket, pulls it off. Pulls her own pack off and hunts through it for her flashlight. It's dark under the trees.

"Oh… god," Sam suddenly says in a choked voice. She rolls to hands and knees, gagging. Dani barely gets the bundle of clothing out of the way before the mead -- and dinner -- come up.

"Having fun, Captain?" Jack calls over his shoulder.

She helps Sam dress and gives her water. The first couple of mouthfuls come right back up, but once some stays down, Dani dissolves a packet of electrolyte replacement powder in Sam's canteen -- it's still full -- and gets her to drink most of it with a couple of aspirin. Sam's their field medic, but Dani knows a lot about hangovers, their cure and prevention. After half an hour, Sam's dressed and can walk under her own power. She's still wasted, though; she keeps giggling, and trying to wander off. Dani hangs onto her. Neither Jack nor Teal'c seems inclined to help.

Oh, General Hammond is going to love this.

She's starting to get a headache. That beer was lethal.

They are so doomed.

There must have been something in the mead besides alcohol. They'll know as soon as they get back. It wasn't uncommon for mead to be flavored with herbs and spices. She's just never heard of them having … quite this kind of a kick. Or maybe Sam's always like this when she gets drunk. She doesn't know Sam all that well, yet, after all.

"Well, that was a bust," Jack says, when the Stargate's in sight. "Well, aside from Carter's little strip-tease."

She sees Sam wince, and figures she must be sober enough for remorse by now. "Colonel, I'd like to apologize--"

"Captain. Forget it."

Does that mean he's not going to tell on Sam to General Hammond? She hopes so. But she's still not all that happy with him right now. They found a whole new alien (sort of) culture and talked to it, and all he can think of -- obviously -- is that they didn't find any big shiny guns or military intelligence. They could have stayed longer -- well, if Sam hadn't drunk that mead, they could have. And she bets they don't have any plans to go back and study these people, either.

There are really times when she'd just like to slap some sense into Jack O'Neill.

#

Both P34-575 and P3A-577 were Earth-derived cultures. Both primitive. Teal'c says that the _Goa'uld_ make sure that none of the cultures around them can advance enough to pose any possible threat. Considering that the three she's seen -- these two and Abydos -- have barely reached the Bronze Age, and the _Goa'uld_ have starships, she thinks the _Goa'uld_ are pretty paranoid.

So much has happened lately that her emotions just can't keep up. She knows she ought to feel more. She tries to jump-start her feelings, telling herself _I murdered my sister two weeks ago,_ but all she feels is an odd sense of peace, as if in doing that she's done something hard but good.

Sha're has gone to walk among the gods.

Skaara's loss is harder to bear, but difficult to focus on. She wants him _back,_ but she also knows the _Goa'uld_ aren't torturing him, since he's one of them now. He's in limbo, neither alive nor dead; she doesn't know if he can be restored to what he was, or if he's gone forever. She knows he isn't dead. But he's not alive, either. She can't mourn him. Her emotions are frozen.

She has screaming nightmares that she doesn't remember upon awakening, but her days are okay. She greets Jack and Sam cheerfully when they arrive at her loft to help her unpack her furniture. By now, Jack is lots calmer than he was on the first Abydos mission or even the second one; even cheerful sometimes. But, on the first one… he'd just lost Charlie then. And was planning to commit Suicide-By-Black-Ops. She likes this Jack a lot better. She always suspected he was under there somewhere.

God knows how. Not much to go on.

She ushers them into her home.

Unprepossessing at the moment, but hers.

#

"You actually read all these?"

The storage company has been and gone. She's signed for everything. Now they're unpacking. As the crates are broken down, the airmen take them away.

She could get used to living like this. Pampered. As if she were actually worth something to somebody.

On Abydos they kept trying to treat her as if she were a god, but that was different. And she was a princess, but that was different, too.

Everything is different here.

"No, they're for decoration." She wonders if he believes her. The book he's holding is written in Sanskrit. She reads Sanskrit.

"You play the piano, Dani?" That's Sam. The airmen have just opened the largest crate. She's glad, now, that she leased so large a space. She didn't know Nick had saved the piano.

"I used to. My mother did." She'll have to get it tuned if she wants to play it again. Almost two decades in storage will have detuned it. She always played. Sometimes she picked up extra money in college that way. Music was a good way not to think about other things, and there were a lot of times when she didn't want to think.

Nick was selective in what he stored. Books, artifacts, good pieces.

She has chairs, but no couch.

A bedframe, but no bed.

Bookshelves, but not enough of them.

No curtains, towels, linens.

Dishes and silver, but no cookware. (Which is okay, as she doesn't cook.)

"It's going to be hard, explaining any of this to your family," Sam says.

"They're all dead," she answers before she thinks. Her biological family is dead, except for Nick, who might as well be. Her real family…

She killed her sister.

Her brother is host to a _Goa'uld_.

She's not sure her goodfather will be able to forgive her for either one. Or if she'll ever see him again.

"I'm sorry," Sam says.

"It happened a long time ago. Shall I order pizza?" You order pizza when people help you move. She knows that.

"The Captain likes mushrooms. I'm more of a pepperoni guy," Jack says.

Dani takes out her cellphone. She already knows where the best pizza delivery place in the area is. She's spent her life on college campuses since she was sixteen. She has at least some of the skills that normal people consider appropriate.

There's still a lot to unpack. But the big pieces -- the things she couldn't move by herself -- have been uncrated and positioned. Jack has even gotten the airmen to hang the mirror over the breakfront, which meant drilling into the brick. Apparently he feels his contribution is entirely supervisory. She supposes that's how the military works.

She doesn't understand the military.

#

"You _have_ read all these books," Jack says accusingly.

He's waving a book around in one hand, a slice of pizza in the other. The airmen have left now. She sent a pizza with them. She's not sure whether they're allowed to eat in the presence of officers -- the military is actually rather tribal, and many tribes have very specific dining customs -- but surely they're allowed to eat, and they _did_ help her move.

She walks over and takes the book away from him -- it's in German -- sets it down on a pile. The bookcases are already full. She'll need to buy more. Half these books, she suspects, will need to go to her office under Cheyenne Mountain, anyway, because she'll need them there.

"I speak 36 languages, Jack," she points out. Just in case he's forgotten.

"Like, ah, Abydosian?"

 _Abydan._ "That would make thirty-seven. And it's really just a dialect of ancient Egyptian. I already spoke several dialects of Egyptian. I'm not sure it counts."

" _Goa'uld_?"

"No," she says. "Not yet. But Teal'c will teach it to me. I've asked him. He's said yes."

Apparently there are two dialects: the one the Jaffa speak among themselves, and the one the _Goa'uld_ speak. Teal'c knows both. He'll teach her. She's promised to teach him _Tau'ri_ customs -- as much of them as she knows, anyway. She's not sure why Teal'c can't be here, if Jack and Sam can. She'll ask Jack later. Or Sam.

"Well, good," he says.

_Yes, Jack, at least I'll make myself useful in the midst of your grand military adventure._

_And maybe I can keep all of you from trying to kill any more innocent people._

#

_INTERLUDE:_

"What're we doing down here, Sam?" Dani asks her.

They're more than two miles underground, in a place called Stargate Command, which is hidden under NORAD. It's a military base, and like all military bases, is essentially a city. It has everything. Commissary. Infirmary. Armories. Brig. Bunkrooms. Officer's quarters. Library.

Gymnasiums.

"Well, if you're going to keep going through the Gate, we need to evaluate your level of physical competence and see what areas we need to work on to bring you up to speed."

They're both dressed in workout clothes: grey t-shirts, grey sweatpants, slip-on shoes. Dani's hang on her. There are sizes that would fit, but she didn't pick them. She stares at Sam, and Sam can tell that she's obviously trying to decide whether or not to panic -- as if panic is ever a conscious decision. Her eyes are enormous, staring at Sam as she thinks. She worries at her lower lip.

She has half the airmen on the Base walking into walls already, and she hasn't got a clue. If she'd just take a little care with herself, maybe a little makeup, she'd have the other half barking at the moon, too.

Sometimes, Sam thinks, life is really unfair.

"Work on?" Dani sounds nervous.

"Well, we need to teach you to defend yourself."

Sam realizes with a sense of dismay that whatever she's just said was the final straw. Dani's chin comes up. Her eyes are wider than before, but the pupils have shrunk to pinpricks. She isn't running out of the room, but Sam knows that's next. And she certainly isn't listening. What the hell did she say that scared Dani so much? They're friends. Starting to be, anyway.

"Captain. Doctor."

"Colonel."

"Jack."

"Okay, so what have we got here?"

#

"Physical evaluation of Dr. Jackson for continued participation in offworld activities, sir," Sam says.

It's the first time it occurs to Dani that Sam might beat her up and she could still fail this stupid so-called test. Which she knows it isn't. Not a real test. Not after what Sam said. The last time somebody said they wanted to teach her to defend herself, they broke her arm.

But Sam's her friend.

Now Dani's just confused. Maybe Sam's following orders. She knows Sam and Jack both follow orders they don't like. General Hammond keeps hinting that he'd really prefer her out of the field and behind a desk. If she fails at this, he'll have more ammunition.

She knows General Hammond doesn't like the way she keeps badgering him to pay more attention to the cultural aspects of what they're doing and less to the military. But if they don't try to repair the damage the _Goa'uld_ have been doing out there for millennia, how are they any better than the _Goa'uld_?

"Jack! You have to let me keep going through the Gate!"

He holds up a hand. He isn't finished talking to Sam.

"General Hammond order this?"

"Yes, sir."

"She did pretty well on Abydos and Chulak and those other places we've been to lately."

Sam doesn't say anything.

Jack turns to her. "Okay. Unarmed combat is what we try to avoid. Know anything about it?"

"Well, the Egyptians had a form of wrestling, but--"

"Ah! Not now. Personal experience?"

"Not exactly." Being beaten up is not the same thing as unarmed combat experience.

"Then we'll start with falls."

"I already fall down a lot, Jack."

"Then you're already in practice."

#

One of the things that has amazed Sam ever since Abydos is watching Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Jackson -- Dani -- together. It has a bizarre sort of… innocence. She treats him as if he were just one of the guys. Or she is. And he lets her.

In fact, he encourages it.

Sam has read about _idiots savant,_ and, now that she's more acquainted with Dani's academic background -- a little scary because she's almost five years younger than Sam is and has still managed to rack up that collection of degrees and publications (though not as many of the later as Sam would have expected) -- she'd wondered if Danielle Jackson were one of those: someone whose intellect has taken over to the point where there's simply nothing else there.

But no. Off in her own world half the time. Kind of naive about people, maybe. Very shy, actually, though she does her best to disguise that by being incredibly abusive to most people.

The Colonel is handling her just right. Although handling isn't exactly the world. Sam thinks he's genuinely fond of Dani.

She is, too.

And it's fortunate she's got a Level Three Advanced rating in Unarmed Combat, because about half an hour later -- they've been working with her on basic falls and rolls, and Dani's starting to get the idea -- the Colonel suggests that she might want to vary the routine a little by grabbing Dani and seeing if Dani can break her hold.

He sets them up the way he wants them, and then tells Sam to grab her. About five seconds after that, Sam realizes that they shouldn't have been asking Dani about unarmed combat experience, but about bar fights. She's stronger than she looks, too.

Sam -- might -- manage to hold on. But if she does, one of them is going to have to get seriously hurt. She lets go. Dani staggers, sprawls, falls, scrambles to her feet. Glares at both of them indignantly.

"So… she can hold her own out there?" the Colonel says blandly.

"Yes, sir." Sam's not sure, but she thinks Dani would have bitten her in another minute. "That's what my report to General Hammond will say."

"And this …falling thing? You gonna keep working on that?" the Colonel asks Dani.

Dani sighs theatrically. "Yes, Jack. I promise I will keep falling down and rolling around on the floor to satisfy you and the United States Air Force."

"Well, good," the Colonel says. "The instructors should be here by next week. Until then, you just keep working out with Carter. Only… try not to bite her. She'd be expensive to replace."

"Sure, Jack. Sorry, Sam."

Sam grins at her. "No problem."

It's going to be great to have another woman on the team. One who doesn't even notice how smart Sam is.

###

**Author's Note:**

> Here's where I really start to have problems with the lack of canon reference material, but hey...
> 
> Having chosen to follow Dani through the remix of what is pretty much a Jack-centric episode, we end up with a story where she doesn't have a lot of the information that the viewer would have, since she simply isn't present for many of the events.
> 
> I haven't looked at these for a long time, and I have real problems writing about my own work anyway (it always sounds like gloating/boasting/bragging pick one), but there are a couple of things worth mentioning, since I noticed them here. One, the relationship between Dani and Teal'c is profoundly different than the one between _Daniel_ and Teal'c. Daniel and Teal'c's relationship began with: "You kidnapped my wife to be enslaved by monsters." Dani and Teal'c's relationship began with: "You took a great risk to help me save my sister from being enslaved by monsters."
> 
> Someday I need to write the scene where Dani explains to him that _Tau'ri_ clothing is sex-specific along color, cut, and fabric lines, and no, he won't really blend in in that outfit. Also the story where the two of them enter a swing dance competition....
> 
> The other thing is the first stirrings of the 40s romcom version of sexual tension, in which Dani decides that Jack O'Neill is the most irritating man alive and she really wants to slug him. It's cute, really. YMMV.
> 
> Meanwhile, alert canonists will notice that this story extends far past the end of the episode, and there are Norse. Also, my own version of the scene Jack refers to in one ep (Broca Divide?) where Sam: "drank that stuff and took off her..." Also, you know: ANGLO-SAXON! Because: yay.
> 
> I once had a notion of making each season into one novel. My easy-distractibility saved me from that, but this is one of the artifacts that remains. Anyway...


End file.
